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Wednesday, 26 March 2014

You are to put together a total of 20 tags, 19 of them you will prepare for fellow crafters participating in the swap.

You will ship these tags to us at Firefly headquarters. We'll make packets for all participants and mail off everyone's tags. So you'll receive a parcel with tags from all other participants, and each parcel we ship out includes a tag from you.

To ensure that everything runs smoothly, we request you to deposit Rs 200 to cover the expenses related to shipping these tags to you.

All participants must share samples of their work. We don't want to be unfair to anyone and would like everyone to produce high quality work for this tag swap.
Last date to submit tags is 15th April :D
Email with samples of your work to theguildofcraft@gmail.com and we'll send you the payment details/address for your tags!Please confirm your interest asap. :D

The 3 themes are as follows, you may interpret them as you like.
Vintage RomanceTea PartySpring in Bloom

The sizes for the tags are 2.5x4 inches. You may alter the size no more than an inch in terms of shape and form.
You can add flowers, trim, ink, layers, glitter, mixed media, film, paint, color... anything you'd like to do. These are going to be original art pieces you're gifting fellow crafters to use with their projects in the long run. Please produce work that you yourself would be happy receiving!

Monday, 17 March 2014

It probably sounds a little cliché with the idea that when I began my work, I never intended it to grow this much nor did I see it being what it is now. The truth, however is... that it's a fact! Firefly was a very whimsy attempt during a spring break in my 3rd year at Indus and I don't think I've really looked back since then. My vision for Firefly has grown. It's definitely broadened, and for a fact we've achieved several milestones. All I can say is, ALHAMDULILLAH! Isn't He Awesome?!

Every Year Allah Kareem grants me a few gifts to celebrate Firefly's birthday in March.
Here's what we've done this year...

-Managed Giveaways for PepsiCo for Pakistan Idol
-Produced handmade flowers and marble magnets for Daaman's Press and Media Kits for Fashion Pakistan Week 2014
-I, the Firefly Girl was awarded with Young Entrepreneur in the Spotlight at the 6th Annual Ladiesfund Women's Awards (that, too on 1st March!)
-We're at 18,000+ fans on Facebook
-We have 500+ loves following us on Instagram

That's probably the most remarkable bit to my journey. The unknown is beautiful... and the surprises are always breathtaking. Alhamdulillah! :)

I've been a bit of headless chicken.. my attention's been all over the place.. and it's been a lot of work trying to ground myself to life and routine here. Slow and steady wins the race, no? :)

I request each of you to make dua for me, and those of you that pray for me, I appreciate it and cannot thank you enough.

The Give Away!

Without further delay, I want to celebrate 4 years of my precious Firefly. I've been writing in it often, will think about sharing some of my writings with you all :) To party it up with our confetti, I'm rolling out the Giveaway. Given it's Crafts Month, let's celebrate by gifting one lucky crafter these gorgeous gifts to help them kickstart their crafting and inspire them to create <3

How do you take part?
1- Go over to the Firefly Page on facebook. (Fb.com/whimsical.firefly)

2- Visit our product archives and go through the photos. Pick out ONE Handmade project done by me that you love.

3- Share that photo and write what you love about it, and what makes it stand out for you on your Profile Page (make it public)

4- Leave a comment here on this post once you do with your Facebook Profile Link :)

5- You can share multiple projects you admire, but do write constructively in your feedback.

6- Last date to share is the 30th of this month (March)

7- Winners get announced here on the blog on the 31st! InshaAllah.

8- All participants must have a Pakistan based postal address to ship the goodies to!

WINNER SELECTED! :D
I wanted to take out a moment to say thank you to everyone that took part in this giveaway. Reading through some of these posts and shares, I could see some very genuine feedback and appreciation, and it means a lot to me to have you share those thoughts out loud.

Out of all the entries, I fed a count into random.org's generator... we have Zain Saleem as the lucky winner of our Craft Month and Birthday give away! :D Congrats love! inbox me your postal address so I can mail out your crafty treats!

I have compiled the entries I had visible access to. :) It is always a blessing to be able to inspire and help others grow... and encourage them to learn. Thank you everyone for giving me that opportunity :) xx

Monday, 3 March 2014

I think everyone's gotten accustomed to my stagnant blog and the posts that disappear. I'll be honest, I went into a little hiatus. My writings took a back seat for the last 8 months or so. I traveled, was occupied with family and am now back to working. I'm managing to do new things and am exploring paths I crossed previously. And mashaAllah things are shaping... they're slow but they're shaping.

March is birthday month. And you know that that means! Celebrations! :) Firefly turns 4 inshaAllah this year. I can't believe it's been 4 years already. Time flies when you're having fun :)

I just wanted to post in a little love here to everyone for their support along my journey. I received Entrepreneur in the Spotlight at the 6th Annual Ladiesfund Awards over the weekend. It felt surreal... that feeling of having your work recognized over such a platform is like an entire paradigm shift. Especially when 2 years back, my work wasn't worth a nomination.

Firefly and The Crafter's Guild has a lot of my efforts and emotions bound to it, but I can't help but mention it's come to this point because of all of YOU. Thank you everyone. Let's see where we head from here. :)

The Firefly Girl

Varah Musavvir, a graduate from the batch of 2011 (Textile Design) currently heads the gifts and greetings company, Firefly. Under it she operates The Crafter's Guild which is home to Pakistan’s largest craft fair, The Crafter’s Expo. She serves as Director for Commune Artist Colony and likes to spend her time training, mentoring and working with crafters and artisans. She also currently serves as Prima Marketing, Inc’s first art educator for Pakistan. Across her journey, Varah has and continues to volunteer her time to various organizations. While engaging in art and craft, she works toward making a difference in the lives of young women and children in an effort to reshaping the way the world looks at Pakistan, one step at a time. Varah has worked with over 500 crafters across Pakistan, and has herself conducted several craft based workshops over the years.
She is passionate about paper crafting and creating whimsy pieces as a form of expression. With a love for the stars, the sea, and thundershowers, she writes, and spends a lot of her time advocating fairy dust and rainbows rule the world.